(Untitled)

[willowberry]

Something occured to me this morning. I had taken leave of Wolfram and Hart for two months...and yet they had continued to put me up in this apartment building. Maybe they really weren't as evil as everyone said they were. Or maybe Angel had something to do with it. Angel. I took a deep breath, today was the day I was going to go talk to him

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[mr_angel]

Trying to give Cordelia a smile, I finally walked past her and the children and headed over to Willow who was sitting in a chair against the wall. Part of me wanted to forget I saw her here and just go upstairs with Cordy, but I knew I couldn't do that. I could still hear those words starting to come out of Cordy's mouth when Wesley appeared in the office with Alicia and Marilee.

Knowing how things tended to go around here, we probably wouldn't be having a conversation like the one we'd just had in a while. I still had so many questions and concerns about if her staying here with me at Wolfram and Hart was the best of ideas. A big part of me wished that I could leave and go back to the hotel with her that she'd spent the past week or so fixing back up.

As I reached Willow, I shoved my hands in my pockets when I stood in front of her. The email I'd gotten from her a couple weeks ago had gone to be the back of my mind for a while, but now I remembered well. Something must have happened that I didn't know about or why else would she have left so suddenly?

"Willow," I said when she looked at me. "We should probably talk." As she stood, I nodded to my office. I'd been spending a lot of time in there lately.

[willowberry]

Angel approached in his usual broody fashion. You know the look I'm talking about. Furrowed brow, hunched shoulders, hands shoved in his pockets. Interesting, I'd know the guy for going on seven years now and he could still look intimidating. I smiled nervously and stood up from my chair.

I entered his office. It was the first time I had been in there since... well since my little spell-gone-awry. It looked quite a bit different in the daytime. In fact... "Angel?" I asked. "What's with the windows? Aren't you supposed to go all flamey in the sunlight?" I snorted. "Well not flamey flamey... That seems to be more my area of expertise, more just your standard garden variety type of flamey."

Did I mention that I yammered when I got nervous?

I grinned sheepishly. "Nevermind. That's probably not what you had in mind when you said we needed to talk, was it?"

[mr_angel]

"The windows?" Alright, at that I couldn't help but show a small smile. I walked over to the window and looked out then back over to Willow. "Necro-tempered glass, courtesy of Wolfram and Hart."

Though sometimes I did hate to admit it, this place did have its advantages. The glass, the office, the penthouse, the cars, having every resource at your fingertips. They were the things most considered to be a part of my decision to take this job.

Walking away from the window, I stood again next to Willow. "No, it really wasn't." I nodded to the chair for her to sit down and I made my way around my desk and sat down.

"I'm sorry I haven't talked to you earlier about..well, why you decided you needed to leave. First with the children, then the party, now Lorne.." I shook my head. I still needed to 'sniff' him, didn't I?

"Was there a specific reason you decided to resign?" There's nothing like coming out and saying it, is there?

[willowberry]

"Necro-Tempered." I said nodding. "Nifty."

I took the seat that Angel had gestured to, and watched him as he settled himself behind his desk. Wow. He really looked like a CEO. With his fancy suit jacket and big desk... although most normal CEOs don't have large swords hanging behind their desks...I smiled.

"Well. Yes. Remember when I did that teeny tiny spell, and it sort of exploded and I ended up bringing back Cordy, Doyle, and Lilah back from the dead? Well, Tara... you remember Tara don't you? She ..." My heart tightend just remembering it. "She told me that I had gone overboard and she left me. So I decided I had to quit using magick. And I did. I've gone these whole two months without any magick, but Jenny and Giles don't think that completly quitting is what's best for me." I stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. "They think that I just need to learn to manage my power, so I'll stop going overboard all the time, and Tara will be here with me in the magick department to keep me in check so..." I stared intently at the wall just behind Angel. I was having trouble looking him directly in the eyes.

"So, if it's alright with you, I'm going to come back to work? Kay?"

[mr_angel]

Willow went on about why she originally sent me the email and what had happened afterwards. I nodded while she spoke and waited for her to finish. She would finish, right? Nodding again about her talking with Giles and Jenny-wait. Jenny? As in.. god. It wasn't possible, was it? And Doyle? Doyle?

My mouth must've opened a bit while she continued on. I knew about Cordelia, Lilah.. who I wasn't happy about seeing again, and that was about it. But Doyle? Why hadn't he come by to see me? Did he had the idea of my working here? And.. Ms. Calendar? Talk about bringing up memories - the kind one wants to forget but never would be able to.

Pushing it all aside for the moment, or at least as much as I was able to, I focused back on Willow and caught the tail end of what she was saying.

"Y-yeah. Of course it's fine." I think I might've tried to smile, but wasn't very successful at it. Sighing, I leaned forward, resting clasped hands on the desk. "Really. I'm glad you decided to stay. Honestly, it's better to have someone here that I trust and not have to rely on.. well, someone I don't.

"There was one thing though..," I said clearing my throat and I noticed I had a hard time focusing my eyes on any one thing, much less look her in the eye. "About the spell,.." I glanced up at her for a brief moment. "I'm glad you did it. Really." I got Cordy back as a result, for one.

"And I'm glad you're finding a way to get it all under control, but.." I cleared my throat again. "You said Jenny.. and Doyle." I finally looked at her. "They're.. here?"

[willowberry]

As Angel agreed to let me come back to work, I felt most of my nervousness dissapear. Why should I be afraid of Angel? I've known him since I was sixteen! Of course there was that one time when he went all evil and tried to kill me and all of my friends... but there were circumstances then.

Focus Willow. Present. Angel. Office. I smiled and listened to what the big guy was saying. Glad about the spell, okay. Well that is a first. I thought everybody and their dog hated me for that. Getting things under control, good. "But..."

Oh crap. There just had to be a but.

Jenny and Doyle? He didn't know about Jenny and Doyle? Okay, the akward feelings and nervousness were back again. That was short lived. I bit my lip.

"Um. Yeah. See, the spell? It was orginally just supposed to bring back Miss Calender, cause of the.." I coughed "unusal circumstances surrround her death, I just thought that maybe I could bring her back..." Right, Will? Not the best subject here. MOVE ON! "But it, backfired and brought back whole bunches of people. Jenny....she's been staying with Giles. Um. And Doyle? Well I ran into him a few times after the spell, then he told me that he needed to go fix some things. Some things he left unfinished when he died. I ... I don't know when he'll be back..." This was not going as planned.

I leaned forward, "I'm really sorry Angel. You should have been the first person I told. It's just that, well I was sort of gone while all this was going on. I was all hopped up on magick and power. I wasn't thinking clearly...."

[mr_angel]

Jenny Calendar was alive. She'd been the person I-.. Angelus had killed those years ago. I shifted uncomfortably in my chair and again couldn't look straight at her. I'd killed plenty of people over the years as Angelus, but she was the only one that I'd killed that people who cared about me cared about. That Willow, Buffy, Cordelia.. all of them. There was no way I could come face to face with her, not after what I'd done.

Doyle.. left? I cursed under my breath at that damn Irishman for just leaving. He left and I didn't even know he was back. Had he thought that I'd known then I never went to find him? Did Cordelia know he was back? I had no idea if she did or how she'd feel about it. It had taken us a long time to get over his death, Cordy especially.

And what the hell did he need to fix?

I shook my head. "No,.. it's not your fault." I looked up at her again. "Don't blame yourself. If it wasn't for you.. they'd still be dead." I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

"Thank you for telling me, Willow. Really." Looking at her again, I did my best to hold her gaze. "And again,.. I'm glad you did the spell," I said with a small smile. It was selfish that I was glad she did it considering what or who I got out of it, but that didn't change anything.

[willowberry]

Well, I had to admit even with that last turn of events this little meeting was still going better than I had imagined. I smiled and stood up. "Thanks for being so good about all this Angel. I've been through some rough stuff lately, and it ... well, thanks." I walked around the desk and gave him a hug.

Okay, so I know that Angel isn't really the "hugging" type. But I couldn't resist. He was just being so gosh darn understanding about everything. Things were definately looking up, and I couldn't wait to come back to work.

"Then I guess I'll see you in the morning boss?" I asked with a smile.

[mr_angel]

Still trying to keep my concentration on Willow and all that we were talking about rather than.. well what I was actually thinking about, I nodded and stood when she got out of her chair. What I wasn't expecting was for her to walk over and give me a hug.

For some reason, it actually made me feel better. I liked a good hug as well as the next person, but I also wasn't one who went around giving them all the time either. Not that everyone around here really wanted a hug from the broody manpire as Cordelia like to refer to me as.

Hugging her in return, I smiled back at her when she pulled away. She called me boss and I couldn't help but smile. It was a title normally only Harmony used. Okay, she usually called me 'bossy'.

"Sure thing," I answered her. "And no problem about the rest. Just glad you're doing alright."

With that she nodded and turned to leave. Sighing, I realized how well that actually went minus a few mental detours along the way and that I didn't have to actually convince her to stay. I sat back down in the chair and shook my head, rubbing my temples with my fingers. Now what I needed to figure out was how to confront the woman I killed those years ago. Not to mention if I should tell Cordelia that Doyle is possibly running around out there somewhere and didn't bother to come by and might not come back.

Oh, and figure out how in the hell Lorne turned human - if it really was Lorne that is. Guess I was going to have to 'smell' him to find that out for sure.